Film Reviews

Waiting

• Rating:
• Director: Rob McKittrick.
• Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Justin Long, Luis Guzman.
• Details: US, 94mins, 16.

"Being the coolest guy who works here is not something to be proud about. It's like being the smartest kid with Down's Syndrome". Mitch (John Francis Daley) has joined the staff of Shenanigans - a restaurant in the suburbs - and he finds out all the disgusting, horrible antics that go on behind the scenes. He is trained in by the staff's playboy Monty (Reynolds), who has a penchant for under age girls including the sexy host Natasha. Monty introduces Mitch to the rest of the undesirables working in Shenanigans - Serena (Faris), bitchy waitress Naomi, lovelorn pushover Calvin, stoner bus boys Nick and T-Dog, horny cook Raddimus (Guzman), frustrated yet ambitious Dean (Long) and idiotic manager Dan. What follows is a day in the life of the staff, chronicling their misadventures. What's it like? The Farrelly's do restaurants but just not very well. Anyone who has worked in the food retail will disagree and call this a laugh riot but for those who never toiled behind the scenes in an eatery will say that it is not as funny as it is made out to be. Two many jokes fall flat: Reynolds dragging Mitch around the restaurant, introducing him to the staff and their little idiosyncrasies is supposed to the hook, the showcase of things to come but so many of these gags fail to garner a chuckle, let alone a guffaw. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments: the penis game (making some unfortunate soul glance at your genitalia which are shaped into interesting connotations - namely the bat wing, the brain and the goat); Guzman's delight at being caught knobbing a waitress in the jacks and the final 'I can't take this anymore' climatic speech. It all comes down to which side of the Ryan Reynolds comedy fence you're standing.

Review by Gavin Burke